camo16ok

i am havin some serious sunroof trouble. lucky enough its not electrical cause i know squat about that, but somthing is stuck in the motor the sunroof will barely open then stops. i have been to some sunroof places the cheapest offer i got was 120 im not made of money so can any 1 help me fix this prob my self???
97 honda civic EX

kKdARIAN

hmm... maybe your motor is going out'.. sunroof motor that is..

pdiggitydogg

I recently (last nov) changed the cable system.
Its not hard...just a pain in the ***
To get to the guts you obviously need to remove the headliner, and to do that remove some panels (if you want to do it right).
The frame isnt that heavy, but heavy and large enough to be awkward if you work by yourself (I did).
I did my fix in the course of several hrs (w/ some decent breaks in between).

Once you pull it all down you can see if the motor, tracks, cables, or guides are screwing up...but from the sound of it, Id say either the calbes or the motor is having issues.

camo16ok

thanks for all the help, the guy at the sunroof place said that motor is okay and my timing is fine but there is some foriegn object that is stoping the sunroof from going back. now to remove the headliner where do i start first?

pdiggitydogg

to do it right, you need to remove the rear side panels and front a-pillar panel (at least 1 side), rear view mirror, "oh-****-handle" and then remove the headliner...you will have to work the rubber lip around the glass to get the liner down.
I recommend taking the glass off first...just so its out of the way.

After that its pretty obvious as long as you look.

I highly recommend finding a good manual for reference (borrow a helms if you can).

Also, be VERY careful w/ it... If you break the fragile plastic sliders (that are attached to the cables) then you have to replace the whole cable system - The sliders CANNOT be replaced by themselves w/o custom work (I tried).

PDM

clean the tracks and lube them with white lithium grease. Usually that helps when the roof becomes real sluggish but in your case i really cant tell. It may not do the job but its worth the $2 to try